1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an indispensable component unit of an alarm system for securing a predetermined area, such as the user's office or residence, against unauthorized intrusions, the destruction of or removal of property, fire, equipment failure, etc. More particularly, the present invention relates to an apparatus arranged in the predetermined area for directing an engineer or engineers dispatched in a car or cars to a designated area where an emergency or abnormality has occurred, i.e., the site of an emergency or abnormality. For the sake of brevity, this apparatus is referred to as a car-directing apparatus throughout the specification, the claims, and the accompanying drawings.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In conventional alarm systems, a security-ensuring apparatus is arranged in a predetermined protected area, such as the residence or office of the system's user or a public facility. An emergency or abnormality occurring in the predetermined area is thus detected by the security-ensuring apparatus. The apparatus then automatically transmits an emergency or abnormality signal, via an associated signal transmitter, to a central station which has a monitoring unit for continuously monitoring every alarm system connected thereto. The central station then dispatches authorized personnel, i.e., engineers, to the site of the emergency or abnormality in a car or cars. However, it often happens that the dispatched engineers fail to quickly arrive at the site of the emergency or abnormality since the conventional alarm system uses emergency-indicating lamps located outside the protected area and lit by commercial electric power. The employment of commercial electric power often limits proper location of the lamps due to the complexity of electric wiring, damage to the outside wall of the user's residence or office, and so on. As a result, the conventional emergency-indicating lamps are not certain to function so as to direct the dispatched engineers to the site of the emergency or abnormality. In addition, if the dispatched engineers are not fully familiar with the protected area and if they have to go to the site of the emergency or abnormality at night, they are apt to lose their way or it takes them a long time to arrive at the site of the emergency or abnormality since the conventional alarm system has no effective means for giving direction to the dispatched engineers. This drawback has become more apparent since the number of users of the alarm system has recently increased.